Key features of our company
Problem
A picture speaks a thousand words, but what happens when you can't see pictures? Individuals who are visually impaired currently do not have a way to understand pictures in real time. This poses a problem in the education of students who are visually impaired and discourages them from pursuing a career in STEM fields, which rely heavily on image interpretation.
Solution
We have created HaptImage, an image accessing system which allows individuals who are visually impaired to use a portable controller with supporting software to explore images in real-time. Through the use of HaptImage we want to encourage students who are visually impaired to pursue education in STEM fields and be independent in their exploration of images.
Market & Competition
HaptImage will be available to all individuals with visual impairments. There are currently 10 million Americans with a visual impairment. Current products are bulky and require a long time to create an accessible image.Our goal is to develop a device that will provide real-time access to any image that an individual who is visually impaired would want to explore using a portable controller and supporting software.
Current Progress
HaptImage is currently protected by a patent filed by the Purdue Research Foundation in 2016. Currently, we are working with a minimum viable product we developed, while working on making the product more robust. We have already received feedback from educators in schools for the visually impaired expressing their interest in purchasing the device once it is available. We hope to work closely with similar schools so we can continue developing the system and working on any improvements.
The ones who runs this company
Co-Founder
Shruthi Suresh is a PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. She has been working with assistive technologies for over five years and has been working on business development for Haptimage. She can be reached at suresh9@purdue.edu
Co-Founder
Ting Zhang is a PhD student in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University and one of the inventors of the technology. She has been designing technologies for individuals with visual impairments for over 5 years and has programming experience of over 10 years. She can be reached at zhan1013@purdue.edu
What we've done for people
West Lafayette, IN
Phone: 765-588-3470
Email: haptimage@gmail.com